Margaret Randall, 2019.
By Elmarten – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
My dear and esteemed friend, Margaret Randall—writer, activist, beacon to us all—has given me permission to quote from her essay on the March 8 celebration of International Women’s Day. To me, every day of the year should be IWD but of course that only happens in the land of dreams. Margaret raises what has always been a complex issue: should men be included in celebrations of women? I struggled with this for a long time but my recent experience with the young men of the current generation has brought me into whole-hearted agreement. The one I know best is an example of what we feminists in the 1970’s talked long about: the liberation of men as well as women from the chains of the patriarchy. And it is happening. Young men today often do not conform to the old macho stereotypes. They are gentle, thoughtful and openly affectionate. I’m not sure how this dramatic and important change has come about, or how wide spread it is, but it seems to me a great hope. I don’t think these young men can be changed into Warriors. They may be our best hope for finding peace, worldwide peace, before we blow up our world. -Sallie
Albuquerque, March 8, 2022
Dear Friends:
This year I’ve been thinking especially of the feminism’s complexities, practically as well as philosophically.
A few days ago, while trying to register for an on-line program I hoped to attend, I noticed some unusual small print at the bottom of the registration page. I was being asked to agree to the hosting organization’s mission or I wouldn’t be allowed to register. Because I could not agree to that mission—one that excludes men from its events—I chose not to sign up. A shame because the event is about the Fifth Street Women’s Building in New York City. On New Year’s Eve 1970, a diverse group of women took over the city-owned building and occupied it for 12 days. During that time, they fixed up the abandoned shell and created workshops, daycare, and collective kitchen…
Forty or fifty years ago, when women were just beginning to stake out roles in male-dominated institutions and organizations, women-only spaces were important. They were places where we could exercise our rights without having to buck patriarchal obstacles. Today, at least in the US, we have moved beyond that. And we have done so due to the heroic efforts of several generations of women and our male allies.
Today I am thinking of the women imprisoned in Nicaragua, women such as Dora María Téllez, hero of the Sandinista revolution and model for women and men everywhere. And thinking of Dora María invariably leads me to think about Rosario Murillo, one half of Nicaragua’s dictatorial duo. She too is a woman, but one who has chosen to abuse and repress…
Today I am thinking of the Polish mothers who are leaving their baby carriages and strollers on border train station platforms so that Ukrainian mothers fleeing war with small children won’t have to carry them in their arms.
Let us celebrate the women in our lives and also take a few moments to think critically about the immense challenges we face and how true power-sharing provides our best chance of meeting those challenges.
Here’s to the women, today and always!
Margaret.
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I gratefully acknowledge that I live on land first inhabited by Ancestral Puebloan peoples millennia ago, then by the Tewa-speaking tribes of the Rio Grande Valley, and today also by Spanish, Genízaro, Chicano, African-American and European settlers.
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